Deadly Days
by beeabeeon49
Summary: Dumbledore was gone. McGonagall was gone. Their magic had gone. Humanity and civilisation had gone. The marauders in a zombie apocalypse. JPLE and probably will be RLSB.
1. Chapter 1

**It's the multi-chapter story I've been promising for ages! I'd been entertaining this idea for a while, and I finally got around to writing it. It's a lot different to what I'd normally write, so please tell me what you think!**

**And this will probably contain slash (boyxboy). You have been warned!**

* * *

Blearily reaching out to get his glasses, James registered dimly that he was the only one awake – the conspicuous lack of noise was unnerving. He slid the glasses onto his nose, raising an eyebrow as he observed the sleeping forms of his fellow marauders. This was very odd – unless there was Quidditch, he generally was the last to rise.

"Is this a trick?" he asked out loud after a while of considering the prone forms of his friends. "Is this a prank and you're all going to jump out on me?" Silence. This was very strange indeed.

James shrugged – he could work this to his advantage. This could be fun; he could think of it as payback for all the undignified ways he had been woken in the past.

A small noise came from Remus's bed as he stirred. James pouted – why did his fun always have to be ruined? It really wasn't fair.

"…You're up?" Remus managed, still half-asleep. It seemed being in that state didn't keep the marauder from being able to register the oddity of James being awake before anyone else.

James grinned. "Shocking, isn't it? Not quite sure why you were so late in getting up."

"Peter's not here," Remus explained, gesturing towards the empty bed. "He went to visit his mum, remember? Pads and I are usually woken up by him tripping over his shoes each morning to go to the toilet. Why he doesn't put them where he won't trip over them, I have no idea."

"So I'm just a really deep sleeper?" James confirmed. "And if Wormtail's not here, this is the order we'd wake?" At Remus's nod, he cried dramatically, "My life is a lie!"

"Why's your life a lie?" Sirius asked, finally awake. Spotting James, his mouth dropped open in shock. "Why – and how – are you up?"

Remus groaned. "We've already been over this." His eyes drifted to the clock on his bedside table. "…And we're late for breakfast. Or at least going to be if we don't hurry up."

* * *

Five minutes later, the three of them were hurrying down the corridor outside the Common Room, buttoning up their ropes, tying their ties ands raking their hands through their hair in an effort to try and make it _stay flat _– in short, they were a mess.

Upon entering the Great Hall, the three rushed towards their table – breakfast (and lunch and dinner) was one of the only occasions they would hate to miss. Missing a class was fine (unless you were Remus, but the others had agreed that he was just odd). Missing a meal was torture – all were agreed on that.

Once they were seated and had eaten three pieces of toast apiece, they changed their eating speed to a slower pace, allowing them to talk – although with the marauders, 'talking' generally meant 'planning pranks that were sure to happen that day'.

"Or we could do something with the salt shakers," Sirius suggested after a while, glancing up and down the table to find a shaker of the stuff to experiment on. Eventually he spied one sitting innocently by James's left elbow. "Pass us that salt, Prongs."

James looked up, glanced at the salt, then turned back to his food. "Get it yourself, Pads."

Sirius rolled his eyes and drew out his wand. _"Accio salt shaker by James Potter's left elbow!"_ It was always good to be specific with that spell – Sirius knew that from personal experience. He didn't want all the salt in the Great Hall to just dump itself on his head. Though that would be a great prank…

Strangely, nothing happened. Sirius tried again. _"Accio salt shaker by James Potter's left elbow!" _Again, nothing. Why wasn't it working? _"Accio Albus Dumbledore!" _Not even the slightest tug. Maybe he should try another spell. _"Diffindo! Stupefy! Wingardium Leviosa! Lumos! Nox! Engorgio!" _Needless to say, none of them worked.

Annoyed, the marauder turned to the other two, who hadn't really been paying attention to him. "Can either of you two do magic?" he asked them in an undertone.

They both gave him odd looks, turned to each other, then seemed to signal with their expressions 'he's finally lost it'. After a while (in Sirius's opinion at least; in truth it was only a few seconds), Remus decided to humour him and drew out his own wand.

Pointing it at Sirius's robes (somehow he'd managed to spill egg on them – Remus wasn't quite sure how, as there wasn't even any egg on the table), he muttered, _"Tergeo."_ His eyed widened when nothing happened, then he said quietly to James, "You have a go."

James – quite worried by now, but determined to prove that _he _could do simple spells – took out his own wand. _"Expelliarmus!" _Not even a tug on any of the other's wands.

"We can't so magic," Remus concluded pensively. "Either someone is pulling a _very_ huge trick on us, or our magic has deserted us, and we've basically become Squibs." The other two turned quite pale at the thought.

"Dumbledore needs to know," Sirius decided, climbing to his feet and getting apprehensive looks from the others.

"But the whole of Hogwarts doesn't," Remus hissed, gesturing helplessly around the rest of the Great Hall.

"You worry too much, Moony," Sirius told him. "For all you know, _everyone's _magic has gone." By now he was standing on the bench and attracting many odd looks. Grinning at his friend's face – which was decidedly _not_ reassured – he yelled at the top of his voice (which was an extremely loud sound), "YOOHOO! PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!"

The esteemed headmaster of Hogwarts smiled back at him serenely. "Yes, Mr Black? Is there something bothering you?"

"OUR MAGIC IS GONE!" Sirius shouted back, despite the silent hall of students listening to their conversation.

"Your magic is gone?" Dumbledore confirmed, a more serious tone in his voice.

"YES!" Sirius shouted back, gesturing erratically.

"There really is no need to shout, Mr Black," Dumbledore told him, then he addressed the silent hall. "However, this is worrying. Could everyone – teachers included – attempt to levitate their glass?"

Everyone tried. Everyone failed.

All of the teachers had distinctly worried expressions on their faces by now, as did many of the students – especially Slytherins, who were probably horrified at the thought of being equal to Squibs and Muggles.

"This is definitely not a prank?" Dumbledore asked the whole Hall the questions, but everyone could tell it was directed towards the marauders.

"We wouldn't know how," Remus replied, mostly to prevent Sirius from shouting again. The rest of the Hall seemed to agree with the statement, showing that they wouldn't have know either. Even the Slytherins seemed sincere.

Dumbledore nodded, his face extremely worried. "Then it seems we are all without magic."

Sirius slipped off the bench and landed on the floor with a _bump_.

A figure rose from the end of the Gryffindor table, and all heads turned towards it. Remus recognized Marlene McKinnon, and briefly wondered why she had risen. On a closer inspection he realised that her eyes were strangely lifeless and her mouth was oddly slack. She grinned – happily? Hungrily – and her teeth were extremely sharp; like little pointed daggers that glistened and shone in the candlelight.

Lily Evans, sitting next to her, had the sense to move away slowly. On Marlene's other side, Frank Longbottom had not been so perceptive. Marlene lunged – Frank leapt back – her teeth connected with his shoulder – he pushed her off –

Her teeth clamped onto his arm and bit, hard. Small trickles of blood started to run down past Frank's elbow, and there was silence. Everyone was frozen, staring at Frank with apprehension.

His skin turned pale slowly, but his eyes glazed over almost immediately – the colour was bleached out of them, until only the whites and the pupils were left.

The whole Hall seemed to gasp and back away as one. Someone gasped out, "Zombie! There's an Infection!"

Pandemonium broke out.

The two Infected – formerly Marlene and Frank – lunged towards those nearest to them. Sirius was hauled to his feet by someone, he wasn't sure who, and the Gryffindors were fleeing towards the other tables. Those nearest to the doors were scrabbling at them, elbowing each other out the way in determination to escape, and get away from the ever-increasing amount of Infected.

The teachers were in the middle of the Hall, trying to regain order and failing miserably. A shriek caused the marauders to look back from the door – somehow they'd managed to stay together. McGonagall had been bitten, and few seconds later so had Slughorn, and oh god oh god oh god –

So had Dumbledore.

It seemed like this was the last straw. All strength that had been held back was being used, and the doors were flung open.

Everyone was rushing for the doors, Infected and those still human alike. Somehow the marauders had managed to become separated, and none knew where the others were, or if they were even still in their own mind.

But a quick glance around showed that only half of Hogwarts was still human.

* * *

**Fun fact – this is one of the longest chapters I have ever written. Express your appreciation in a review!**

**Really, though, a review would be great!**

**The next chapter will be up in a week.**

**beeabeeon49 xx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is chapter two, in exactly a week as I promised! I'll try to update every Sunday.**

**A shorter chapter than the last one, but this will be my normal chapter length because I find it impossible to write longer chapters. Sorry.  
**

James peered out from the statue he had taken refuge behind, his heart leaping when he recognized a familiar (and reassuringly human) person.

"Sirius! Over here!"

Sirius turned around at once, his face lighting up once he had successfully recognized and located the voice. He hurried towards his friend.

"Have you seen Moony anywhere?"

James shook his head, biting his lip with worry. He hadn't seen Lily either, but he doubted his friend cared about that so much.

A worried expression flitted over Sirius's face, but he grabbed James's arm and pulled him away. "Come on. Dumbledore's office – it should be safe for a while."

James consented to be pulled away, and the two ran as fast as they could to their destination, keeping out a watchful eye for any Infected. Thankfully there was none, as they kept mostly to the lesser-used passages, and they were at the entrance to the office before they knew it. The gargoyles no longer spoke – it seemed that all magic had deserted the castle, as no portraits on the walls had been moving or talking either.

The pair hurried up the stone steps, glad the doors were already open – they doubted they could have broken in using brute force. The only downside was that any Infected could get in easily as well.

Once they were up, their legs gave in and they collapsed onto the floor – though they had only woken up half an hour ago (that was so strange to think about!), they were now completely tired out by the events of the morning.

After a few minutes of lying on their backs and panting, James turned to Sirius.

"It's odd. I'm really tired, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep. I'll probably only have nightmares, anyway."

Sirius agreed, nodding his head. "We shouldn't do anything tiring until we think we'll be able to sleep. Otherwise we won't be able to fight of any Infected that come along."

They both cast uneasy glances towards the wide-open doors.

"Do you reckon we'll be able to close them?" Sirius asked.

"It'll be tiring – didn't you just say we shouldn't do anything like that?" James raised his eyebrows.

Sirius glared at him. "It would be safer that way."

"It was a joke!" James defended himself, getting to his feet.

"This really isn't the time to be joking!" Sirius snapped.

James gave him an odd look. "You okay, mate?"

"Yes – no – I don't know!" Sirius threw his hands in the air. "I'm just not feeling very… marauderish." He joined James, who had already begun heaving at the doors. "It's because there's no Moony, I guess. And I'm worried."

James nodded, but his eyebrows drew together as he thought.

They spent the next hour working in silence.

* * *

After they had spent an hour pushing and tugging, James broke the slightly uncomfortable silence by pronouncing it useless.

"There's no point – they're not going to close, and we're just using up all our energy," he said, wiping the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. "We can't stay here forever, it's not safe. We'll have to find somewhere else or keep on the move."

Sirius agreed, nodding his head. "We should try and get some food – we'll be starving soon. Do you think they'll still have some in the kitchens?"

James shrugged. "It's magically opened, so that means we either won't be able to get in at all, or the door will be open for everyone to access it. And even if we get in, will there be food? Do house-elves count as magical?"

"Even if there aren't any house-elves, there must still be food," Sirius said. "Nobody can make food appear out of thin air, everyone knows that. So it would be worth a look." He made his way out the door, and James followed him.

"Can we even get out of the school?" he asked. "We haven't checked. We could just escape, if it was possible…"

"And leave Moony here?" Sirius demanded. "And I bet you're worried about Lily as well. And I know they're both smart, but they'll never go for the obvious answer of checking if we can even get out. A downside of being clever. No, I bet they've found a really ingenious hiding place – either together or apart – and are going to be fine."

"We don't even know if they're still human!" James protested as they made their way into a main corridor, keeping a watchful look out for any Infected.

Sirius glared at him. "I know they are. They're too clever to get bitten."

They walked on in silence for a while, then Sirius exhaled slowly.

"Sorry. I'm being a bit uptight, aren't I?"

James dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "It's fine. I understand."

"I'm not doing a very good job of being me, am I?" Sirius gave a shaky smile.

James gave a quick laugh, that was slightly too high and hysterical to be counted as natural. Sirius still gave him a grateful look.

James decided to put in an effort of his own. "It's probably this apocalypse that's going on. There's a lot of – SHIT!"

At James's sudden exclamation, Sirius turned to see what his friend had already soon – an Infected was almost right behind them, and James had been almost bitten. Luckily, he had jumped away in time, but the Infected had attacked again.

James was pinned against the wall, and at the complete mercy of the Infected. Sirius leapt forward, and pulled it away, not caring for his own safety – the Infected fell back, then hit the floor. Its neck clicked and broke, twisting around in an impossible position.

James nodded his thanks to Sirius, then approached the fallen Infected slowly, using the tip of his shoe to nudge the head. It lolled to the other side, but the zombie did not stir. It was dead.

Sirius walked up behind James, inspecting the body properly for the first time. With a jolt, he realised he recognized the face – it was Hestia Jones, who had proved to be more than adequate in a broom cupboard more than a few times. Reflecting on it, he found that he was not particularly sorry. He was sad she was dead, yes, but he felt no personal pain or grief.

Before he had time to reflect on it further, he was pulled away by James in the direction of the kitchens.

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter. Argh. I got to 550 words, and then had no clue where to go on from there. Which is why about a third through the theme changes… Sorry about that.**

**Fact: I'm writing a Halloween fic. Maybe. Hopefully. It will be a one-shot, but hopefully longer than my usual ones!**

* * *

Lily gradually came to, the blackness that had been lurking in the depths of her brain and keeping her unconscious finally receding. As her thoughts became less blurry and more focussed, she realised with amazement she was still human.

She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, glancing around the place where she was lying – it was unfamiliar, which was odd because she was sure she already knew all the places around the school. It just went to show that Hogwarts was full of surprises.

Sitting up slowly, Lily grimaced and held her hand against her forehead. She had a pounding headache, and had no clue where she was or what was going on. This was just lovely.

"Finally awake?"

Lily jumped and quickly turned toward the sound of the voice, regretting it instantly as her headache doubled. She became slightly less panicked, however, once she had realised whose mouth the words had come from.

Remus Lupin sat across from her, smirking slightly. "You owe me. If I hadn't saved you back there, you'd be Infected and then you'd have to be killed."

Lily half-heartedly glared at him. "Yes, I owe you. Where are we?"

Remus sighed. "You never were a morning person. This is the Room of Requirement. It's here because I required it."

Lily resisted the urge to lose her temper, wondering why Remus had to choose _now_ to show the marauder side of his personality.

Seemingly realising that Lily wasn't in the mood, Remus explained further. "It's a room that will appear whenever it's needed, and can supply anything that's needed, apart from food. I was surprised it still works, though, since all the magic has gone from the castle."

"Strange," Lily agreed, starting to nod but giving up on it instantly. "Strange that this room works, _and _strange all the magic has gone from the castle. And the zombies," she added as an afterthought. "They're pretty strange too."

Remus nodded, stretching out his legs. "So this apocalypse. Why?"

Lily shrugged. "A prank? Someone outside of Hogwarts? Faeries? It's not as if there's any evidence."

Remus seemed to agree with this, and said nothing further.

"I guess what we really have to worry about is how to get rid of them," Lily said after a few minutes. "For one zombie, brute force could probably do it. But to get rid of them all – "

"You'd have to use a lot of brute force," Remus interrupted her. "We have no magic now, so brute force is all we really have. There are no potions or spells at our disposal now."

"So all we have to worry about is surviving," Lily concluded. "And right now, I could really do with some food. Does this room helpfully supply it?"

Remus gave her an incredulous look. "I hope you're still shocked, because I was sure even Sirius knows that you can't make food appear out of thin air." He suddenly stopped speaking, seeming to realise for the first time that the other two of his clan weren't there.

Hoping to keep him from brooding on this, Lily gave another suggestion. "Can we at least make a tunnel to the kitchens? I'm starving."

Remus nodded distractedly, but Lily could tell he wasn't really paying attention. She sighed and wished.

* * *

_It was odd being separated, and not knowing if the others were alive. Although none of them were alone, that didn't help much – it just left them reminiscing the times when they had been together. They had only been separated for a day, but it felt like _much _longer._

_They remembered their first day at Hogwarts, the day where they had met and become inseparable, excepting Lily of course. But this day was for the marauders. So they thought, and remembered, and dreamed._

**James**

James had, at long last, managed to escape his mother's grasps, said goodbye to his father, and managed to weave through the crowds before he _finally_ caught sight of what he wanted to see since he was five: the Hogwarts Express.

It definitely lived up to his expectations, he decided almost immediately; he could make out its scarlet exterior through the thick clouds of steam issuing from the front of the train, and was already packed with Hogwarts students, though, he noticed, none of them were wearing the uniform. He was suddenly very glad he wasn't either.

He picked up his trunk and managed to heave it onto the train – he had begged his parents not to come on with him – and found an empty compartment. Grinning to himself, James sat down, waiting until some poor soul came in looking for a seat.

Little did he know of what was to come…

**Sirius**

Sirius was annoyed – really annoyed in fact, and his family weren't exactly helping that, as they were the ones who were annoying him. Forget family tradition and honour – heck, he was now completely and utterly against being in Slytherin, where the rest of his family had been sorted into for generations. It was ironic, he found, that while his family was trying to express the _importance _of upholding the tradition, it just made him want to be in any other house more – even Hufflepuff.

Seeing a gap in the crowd, he darted towards it; better escape before his mother started ranting again. Sirius decided he should try and get into a compartment with other people – Gryffindors maybe – so that his mother would at least _try _to refrain from lecturing him again.

Little did he know of what was to come…

**Remus**

'Remus was apprehensive' was an understatement, because to tell the truth he was downright terrified. It wasn't the whole going away from home thing, or normal reasons why other boys might be scared, no, with Remus it was different. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

So he had great reason to be scared – nobody would accept him for what he was, he could hurt someone, or even bite them, at full moon – he would have no friends.

Still (and this was his positive side showing) he would try to make friends, and not let them know what he was, and if they found out, well – he'd just have to leave. After all, they'd spread it, they'd tell their parents, he'd get howlers – no, if they found out he would leave school and go somewhere else. However, he dearly hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Little did he know of what was to come…

_And once they had met, that was that. Hogwarts was doomed._

It was a particularly boring History of Magic lesson – half the class were asleep, and other half were very close to that state. It really was pointless, trying learn like that, as a particular dark-haired boy had noticed.

Leaning closer to his friend, who was sitting (well, sleeping was a better term) next to him, he whispered, "Pads?"

"Mmm?" the other boy seemed slightly put-out that his sleep had been disturbed, but he listened nevertheless.

"Set off a Dungbomb now – we might be able to fit in some Quidditch practice before Charms."

Understanding, the prankster slipped out an object from his robes that he carefully concealed with his hand. He threw it at the teacher's direction, then raised his hand. The ghostly teacher looked up.

"Ah – yes, Bovril?"

"Black, sir – can you smell that? It smells really bad, I can't concentrate."

Professor Binns looked affronted. "I, being a ghost, cannot smell, something which you should show respect to, Banks. Ah, yes, Pollock?"

Ignoring the wrong name, he replied, "It really does smell bad, Professor. Could we please be excused?"

Binns looked slightly bemused, and worried, replied, "Very well. I'll talk to the headmaster about strange smells – quite smelly those." He drifted through the wall, not noticing.

Immediately, the two boys sprang up.

"That was brilliant, Prongs. C'mon, Moony, let's get going."

"Who said I wanted to come?" Moony grumbled, but consented to be pulled away. "Where's Peter?"

"Not going to come to the pitch after what happened last time, Remus my friend," replied Prongs.

"Don't remind me," the werewolf groaned. "That was _embarrassing_!"

_Of course, Peter had eventually caught up with them, and they had gone and planned some pranks for an hour or so. The point is, they always knew where the others were and if someone was hurt, they would know about it._

_Up to now._

* * *

**I was pretty lazy in this chapter, and reused quite a lot of old stuff I just haven't published. I just edited it a bit to make it fit better into the theme. Or something.**

**Please review!**

**(N.B: You may see that last segment used again in another story I'm planning. I put it in, then realised I was actually going to use it for something else. So you may see it again!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, hey guys. I think I'm doing okay with this updating on Sunday thing.**

**Apologies again for last chapter. This chapter is a lot of talking again, but next chapter will have something happen. I just haven't decided on which story arc to start with.**

**And sorry for the lengths of my chapters as well. It is almost physically impossible for me to write long chapters.**

James and Sirius had continued on their way to the kitchen, and were slightly relieved when they noticed the door was hanging open. Of course, there was the small worry of it already having been ransacked, but neither really wanted to think of that. Casting hopeful looks at each other, they stepped through the doorway.

An overwhelming stench hit them. A quick glance at the room would indicate why; food was out and on the table, obviously it had been planned to be used for lunch. It had probably been magically preserved, and now the magic had gone it had gone off almost immediately.

Sirius approached the table with a sad expression on his face. "That's a shame. Lasagne was always my favourite."

"Never mind that!" James said, already opening the door to a cupboard and peering inside it. "Is there any food – that isn't spoiled – here?"

Abandoning the lasagne, Sirius went to help him. They were in luck – in the first cupboard there was a large bag of groceries that seemed untouched and fine to eat, that had almost certainly been bought only a few days ago. Sirius went to seize it, but James grabbed his arm.

"We should only take what we need. There are lots of other people that need food too, not just us."

Sirius shrugged. "If this is in the first cupboard, I'm sure there's enough in the others to feed everyone else who needs it. Besides, I think right now we only need to be worrying about ourselves. Who knows how long this is going to go on for?"

James remained unconvinced, but he let go of Sirius's arm. "Fine. But you have to carry the bag."

"Then where to?" Sirius asked, lifting the bag and staggering a little from the weight. "We can't stay here or Dumbledore's office. They're just not safe."

"There's nowhere that _is _safe," James reminded him.

"Then we're going to have to stick to staying on the move," was the answer.

* * *

It was by cruel fate, perhaps, that Remus and Lily had not decided to go down the passage to the kitchen sooner. If they had, they could have joined up with the other two, and everything would have been fine. They could have informed them of the Room of Requirement, then the four could have hidden there for however long it took.

Sadly, things never seemed to go their way.

It was five minutes later that Lily and Remus made their way down to the kitchen. They made the same observations, only five minutes later. They opened a cupboard and found a bag of groceries, only five minutes later. They had the same conversation about leaving food for other people, only five minutes later.

The only thing that was slightly different was the fact they knew where they were going after they had collected their food, and Remus's hunt for chocolate.

Lily had watched, mystified, as he hunted high and low for even a small bar of the stuff – why it was so important, she had no clue. He eventually found a rather large vat of it, and peeled off the lid with a grin on his face.

"It keeps me happy," he said as a way of explanation.

Lily watched him for a while, then a thought hit her.

"When's the next full moon?"

Remus stiffened and turned towards her.

"What?"

Lily smiled serenely. "The next full moon. You are a werewolf, aren't you?"

"Er – no. Not at all. Not in the slightest…"

"You're a really bad liar, I hope you know that," Lily told him conversationally. "You should work on it."

Remus took the hint and stopped babbling, choosing instead to sit heavily on a worktop. "How do you know? How long have you known?"

Lily waved her hand dismissively. "Since about, oh, first year." At his shocked face, she grinned and continued. "Remember I'm not as stupid or as ignorant as your marauders, and they found out in second year. Obviously I'm going to be a year before them."

Remus felt his throat going dry. "How – "

Lily smiled wryly. "As I said before, I'm not stupid or ignorant. I noticed that you seemed to go away frequently, and worked out it was every full moon. I noticed that you seemed happier and more relaxed after second year, so I guessed you had either told them or they had found out by themselves. And then there was the constant mention of your 'furry little problem'. I noticed everything, Remus Lupin."

Raising his eyebrows, Remus shot back a retort. "You seem to have been studying me a lot. Should I be worried?"

Lily laughed. "You needn't worry. I confess I may have had a small crush on you back then – up to about the end of third year, in fact. I gave up on that when I realised you were perfect for someone else, and they were perfect for you. That, and I know Potter would kill both of us."

"Do I get to know who this person is, or will we only meet at the altar of the marriage you're going to force us into?" Remus asked, wondering whether this conversation had a point.

Lily smiled again, only this time it was more secretive. "You know them pretty well. One day it will hit you in the face, and then you'll wonder how you never saw it before. But enough on your love life – when the next full moon?"

"Five days. On Tuesday," Remus informed her. "We can get the Room to give us a werewolf-proof room or something."

"But we might not have to worry about that!" Lily exclaimed, excited. "All our magic is gone! Being a werewolf is magical, right? Surely that means you won't turn anymore!"

Remus sat up straight, hardly daring to hope. "You really think so?"

"Of course! It makes sense!" Lily was getting more and more ecstatic. "It would be a good idea to make sure it's safe on Tuesday, of course, but I think you'll be fine! Oh, this is great!"

It was the first good thing to come out of the apocalypse – if it worked.

**Please review if you haven't already, oh silent readers. If you have already reviewed, I love you, and please review again!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Apologies in advance for the extremely short chapter. I was running low on inspiration this week.**

**So, who's doing NaNoWriMo? Since this is the first time I'm trying something like this, I'm going to halve the number of words I need to write and set my goal to 25,000 words. Next year I'm going to try 50,000 words.**

**So during November, I may have more erratic posting as I struggle to achieve my 25,000 words. I apologise for this, but NaNoWriMo will help me write longer chapters in the future and so it will benefit this story in the long run.**

**Anyway, sorry for the insanely long author's note and insanely short actual chapter, but I hope you still enjoy!**

* * *

"I wonder why we haven't seen very many zombies for a while," James commented as he and Sirius made their way around the castle in search of somewhere to rest for a while.

Sirius shrugged. "They've all probably found one hideout, and if we find that then all hell will break loose."

James found himself nodding his head and agreeing, but he still felt quite uneasy; he would have thought that by now the castle would have been overrun with the Infected.

They walked on for a while in silence, not because of social reasons but because they were staying ready and alert – they didn't want to be caught off-guard. After a while of this, Sirius stopped suddenly and looked around quickly.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered, still gazing around.

James shook his head nervously. "No…"

"I'm either being paranoid or there's something here," Sirius mused quietly to himself, stepping forwards slowly.

James stood stock still and listened attentively, straining his ears to hear whatever Sirius might have heard. After a minute of nothing, he turned and spoke again.

"Did it sound like the Infected?"

"Not really," Sirius replied. "It sounded more like – "

He was unable to finish his sentence. What seemed like a small barrel of energy emerged from the back of a tapestry that had been lining the wall and streaked towards them, making both of them jump and almost knocking James off his feet. The two friends stared at it for a while, as it just stood there and panted, a happy expression on its face.

" – a dog," James finished for Sirius once he had got his breath back.

It was indeed.

He was a strangely small Labrador, that was chocolate in colour – his tail was wagging but, on closer inspection, his eyes had an oddly frightened look to them.

"That was slightly anti-climatic," Sirius commented, dropping to his knees beside the animal and stroking it. "He must have seen something that scared him, though, or he wouldn't have been running like that."

"He could just be an energetic puppy," James suggested, joining Sirius in petting the dog.

"No – he was scared, and he only looks happy now that we've found him – or he's found us, rather," was Sirius's reply to that. "Speaking of which, _why _is there a dog in Hogwarts? Is it something to do with the zombies, or did one students just bring a pet that wasn't allowed to Hogwarts?"

"At least he's not a hedgehog," James snorted, referencing the time when Sirius had tried to smuggle a hedgehog into the school.

Sirius pouted. "I'll have you know that I _like _hedgehogs!"

James laughed, but that was cut short when it was his turn to hear something. And what he heard was slightly more ominous than a running dog.

"Infected!" he warned hastily, swiftly turning to face the open mouth of the tapestry the dog had torn down.

He was right. And there was a lot of them.

The zombies approached as a massive hoard; mouths slack, extremely pale skin, lifeless eyes and hungry expressions. It was a completely strange, and yet terrifying, sight.

Before the two could even react to the massive number of Infected coming towards them, the dog that had been lying on the floor jumped to its feet and scampered into the midst of the crowd. It soon became apparent what he was doing – by biting the legs and ankles of the approaching zombies he was slowing them down, and causing a few to topple over onto other Infected, creating a domino effect.

With their assistant's help, James and Sirius only had to face about ten zombies, out of the fifty that had been there from the start. Of course, ten still was no pushover, and neither of them were that confident in killing them, especially if they recognized who that Infected had formerly been.

Thankfully, most of the ten they had had to dispose of were just faces they had sometimes seen in corridors between lessons and at dinner. The only real shock was someone who James had recognized as one of Lily's close friends, who turned out to be quite a resilient zombie – he had had to snap her neck at least twice, while berating himself and wondering if Lily would ever forgive him. Sirius assured him later that she would have.

Once the ruckus was over, the two turned to the small dog sitting a few yards away, then at the same time began to talk to it about its awesomeness for about ten minutes.

"Can we keep him?" Sirius asked at last.

James looked at him incredulously, as if he wasn't quite sure why Sirius had felt the need to ask him that. "Of course! We're going to call him Slayer!"

"Slayer?" Sirius asked. "I thought we were going to call him Bobby!"

"He'll be called Bobsleigh," James decided, with a tone of finality in his voice. Sirius gave him an odd look, but agreed.

"I wonder who his owner was, and whether he had any relatives," Sirius said, staring at the pleased-looking dog.

"Whoever it was trained him well," James shrugged.

What neither of them knew was that Bobsleigh did in fact have a sister, a descendant of whom ended up being owned by Dobby. But that's a story for another day.

* * *

**A note on this chapter: Yes, this story arc does have a point. I didn't just add in a dog for the sake of it.**

**The top author's note is important. Go and read it.**

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So I was just going about my daily life until I was struck with a massive revelation, and that was that I'd be away at the weekend. And I though 'well what about Deadly Days?'.**

**So you've got this chapter early! On a Thursday! Fancy that!**

**And because next Sunday is in November, my updating schedule _will _go haywire until NaNoWriMo is over.**

**Also, massive thanks to TwilaCute, Pollonium, kilo13, and some of my other friends for giving me loads of ideas for this story! Some of them weren't exactly serious, but there you go…**

**So yeah. Lily probably won't get pregnant just so that I can kill Harry again.**

* * *

"So, Bobsleigh," Sirius sat opposite the dog, looking him in the eyes. "Where've you been, hmm? What are you doing at Hogwarts?"

Bobsleigh barked. James snorted.

"Why are you bothering asking him that? You wouldn't understand the answer."

Sirius smirked. "Because I _am _a dog." And a second later, he was.

James refused to be impressed. "And you can understand what other dogs are saying when you're in dog form? That wasn't in the book. I can't understand what other stags are saying."

Sirius transformed back into human form. "How often do you meet stags? How often do you need to translate what they're saying?"

Shrugging, James had to concede with that point. But still…

"He has an owner!" Sirius concluded happily after a few minutes. Somehow, he had managed to change back into Padfoot, have a conversation with Bobsleigh, then change back – all without James noticing.

"And that owner is?" prompted James.

"Someone in Hufflepuff. I think. And I didn't quite understand her name. But it's a start, right?"

Not waiting for a response from James, Sirius turned back to the panting dog, then transformed yet again. It was beginning to annoy James; they were hiding behind a tapestry that was tucked away in a small corner of Hogwarts. There was space for Sirius to transform, but not enough for a 'tall, magnificent stag' (as James had put it). He was sure that Sirius was just changing as much as possible to annoy him.

…And the dog was Sirius again. "He hasn't seen Remus or Lily anywhere, or at least he hasn't seen anyone that was like I described, and I think I described them pretty well."

Inwardly, James snorted. No doubt Sirius's description of Remus had been _extremely _detailed, down to the very colour of his eyes, and his description of Lily had amounted to 'red hair and green eyes'. But her eyes weren't even green, they were _emerald_! Stupid Padfoot.

Unknowing of James's predicament, Sirius continued speaking. "That's a good thing, I guess. If he hasn't seen them, then that lowers the chance of them not being Infected and in a safe place instead."

"Bobsleigh probably hasn't seen all the Infected," James pointed out. "The chance doesn't get that smaller. Although – " he added hastily, after Sirius glared at him " – it _is _good news. At least we know that the chance got smaller, even by a tiny bit."

"That comment helped us in no way whatsoever," Sirius informed him, then turned back to Bobsleigh. James began to feel a little indignant – why was a dog better than him to talk to? What was wrong with him? Was he being replaced?

But Bobsleigh was turning to him now, and James felt himself melting – it was the eyes, he guessed. Padfoot had never quite perfected his puppy-dog eyes look. This dog certainly had.

"Do you want to sleep?" James ended up asking – it had been a long day, and his own eyelids had began to feel quite heavy. He didn't care that he was probably going to get nightmares – all he cared about was sleeping, and this hide-away was the perfect place.

Sirius seemed to sense this, and shook his head. "You can sleep first, if you want. I'm still not that tired, and I haven't quite finished my conversation with Bobsleigh yet. I'll wake you up in a couple of hours."

Normally James would have protested – what sort of friend would he be if he stole the first sleeping shift? – but he was getting more tired every second. And, well, he had woken up first – and how long ago was that? Was it really only a day?

So he lay back and closed his eyes, slowly sinking into sleep with the varied barking of Bobsleigh and Padfoot to remind him that he was not alone.

He had no nightmares.

* * *

Sirius woke James a few hours later, but when James opened his eyes he did not feel refreshed at all. If anything, he felt more tired – how could he be expected to guard like this? But one look at Sirius showed him that his friend also needed to sleep – there would be time to question him about anymore information he had found out the next day.

James didn't really want to think about the next day. It sort of loomed in the distance, and he knew that was when it would hit home that this really was a zombie apocalypse and that the people who had turned weren't going to turn back. He knew that Hogwarts would never be the same again, and he didn't know what they were going to do. They could go and kill all the zombies running around, sure, but life as they knew it wasn't going to resume. Dumbledore was dead!

His thoughts began to run wild then, thinking of his lost magic and already reminiscing on his particularly brilliant pranks, until he found himself hugging his knees and trying not to cry.

James really, really wanted to find Lily and Remus, he wanted the four of them to join together and then maybe, maybe everything would be a bit brighter.

Bobsleigh crept up behind him and lay his head on his knees, making James jump. He slowly extended an arm and petted the dog's head, wondering if he had slept at all.

He spent about an hour there, patting Bobsleigh's head, listening to Sirius's deep breathing and immersed in his own thoughts – really, if a hoard of zombies had decided to come along at that moment, he wouldn't have noticed until it was too late.

Which was why when Bobsleigh slipped his head away from James's fingers and made his way out from behind the tapestry and into Hogwarts, James didn't notice.

It was until his hands grasped on thin air that he sat up straight, fully awake for the first time in hours. Was it Infected?

He turned, roused Sirius and told him of their situation.

* * *

**Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey look, I exist. Hi.**

**Apparently my Mac breaking makes me more productive. Now I only have a tiny little Windows. I am sad waah.**

…**Please ignore my theories later on. They are pathetic, but I had to use them so don't criticize because I know they're wrong so bleargh.**

**Miaow.**

* * *

"Remus?" Lily got up and crossed the room, sitting down next to her companion. "What do you think happens to us when we die?"

Remus looked at her curiously. "Why?"

Lily drew her knees up to her chin. "Well – before I found out I was a witch, I always thought that once we died, that was it. We stopped existing. I thought that there was no heaven or hell or place to go once we were dead.

"But – but once I found out that magic existed, I started to question that. It made more sense that there was an afterlife, and so I started believing that instead."

Remus nodded. "I guess that's what I think, but I never really put much thought into it."

Sighing, Lily leant back against the wall. "But what happens now that our magic is gone?" There was no need for her to elaborate.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until we're dead," Remus told her, then he winced. "That came out wrong."

Lily gave a nervous laugh. "It's fine."

There was a silence for a while (there had been a lot of those in the past few days), which was broken by Remus.

"I do worry about the other two, you know."

The was no doubt in who he was referring to. Lily turned to him. "For which reason?"

"Our magic being gone. There _are_ purebloods, and even though they have no problem with Muggles, they know next to nothing about them. Even if we get out of Hogwarts, and escape the Infected, we might not get our magic back. They'll be like babies all over again. It's going to be difficult."

"You're assuming we _will _find them," Lily reminded him quietly, making sure he didn't get his hopes up.

"I'm not assuming we'll find them. I _know _we'll find them," Remus informed her. "It's only a matter of time."

* * *

Meanwhile, Bobsleigh was having a very fun time indeed. The halls of Hogwarts were extremely interesting to run around, and dodging the odd Infected added to the experience. There were millions of cubby-holes, and the dog had explored every one he had come across; he really _was _having the time of his life.

Sirius and James, however, weren't. All these cubby-holes meant lots of hiding places, so they deemed it necessary to check each and every place – a tremendously difficult and gruelling task. They didn't even know the direction Bobsleigh was going in, so for all they knew he could be three floors up on the other side of the school.

Neither of them had any clue why they were so attached to the dog. Perhaps it would have been easier for them to have forgotten about him, but, to tell the truth, that idea hadn't crossed either of their minds. Maybe it was just because Bobsleigh was the first comrade they had made, and they didn't want to lose him.

Sadly, Bobsleigh didn't seem to want to be found. A day's searching was fruitless, and they hadn't even seen any Infected they recognised – they had had to dodge a few unfamiliar Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins a few times, but there seemed to be a shortage of people they knew and Gryffindors.

It was with aching bodies (courtesy of peering into the many nooks and crannies) they reached the end of the day, which was when the realisation hit them that they had left their bag of food in the spot they had been sleeping in. Not wanting it to be left there, they turned and made their way back the way they had came.

All in all, it had been a fairly unsuccessful day. Except…

Sirius stopped short, causing James, who had been walking behind, to almost collide into him. Righting himself, James replied.

"Yeah?"

"Do you reckon the Gryffindor common room and dorms will be safe?"

James shrugged. "Dunno. Why?"

A grin spread across Sirius's face. "Because the Marauder's Map is there! And I don't know the logic of our magic disappearing, but maybe that will still work!"

James looked at him sceptically. "The paintings don't move anymore, and neither do the gargoyles at the opening to Dumbledore's office. Why would the Map be any different?"

"Because they were enchanted!" Sirius replied, then looked confused. The explanation had just come out of his mouth, but he hadn't even thought of it – although, come to think of it, it made some sort of sense.

"Isn't the Map enchanted?" asked James, perplexed.

"No – it's made completely of magic. Remember all that research? You can't conjure something out of thin air. But you _can_ make something out of magic," Sirius told him. "Hopefully it will still exist – otherwise that's all our work gone down the drain." He laughed. "Honestly, did you pay attention to what we were doing at all?"

James gave him a playful shove. "Know-it-all. Are you sure _you_ weren't just paying attention a bit _too _much?"

Sirius looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

James smirked. "It doesn't matter. Come on, let's hope that the Gryffindor common room isn't where all the Infected are lurking."

Sirius wasn't having any of it. "What _do _you mean?" he persisted, following James along the corridors.

"Exactly what I said," was his only reply.

Sirius followed in silence for a while, puzzled and all the while mulling over his friend's words. _Are you sure _you _weren't just paying attention a bit _too _much? _What did that mean?

After a few minutes, James, annoyed with the silence, spoke. "Stop analysing what I said. I didn't mean anything by it."

"You said you did, before," Sirius persisted. "You said that it didn't matter. Come on, tell me!"

"No!" James snapped. "I didn't mean anything important by it, and I shouldn't have said anything. Forget about it. We're close to the common room now, and then we can see if the Map still works."

Sirius nodded and tried to shove the puzzle to the back of his brain, but it slowly crept into his other thoughts until he was dwelling on it once more. Wisely, he said nothing to James.

The two struck up a conversation about little, unimportant things – what lesson they were missing currently, what was happening outside – all things that used very little brain power to think and talk about.

So all the while, the puzzle remained.

* * *

**That was terrible, wasn't it? And such a long wait for it.**

**So yeah, my Mac is on the verge of breaking and I'm going to have to back up all my files or I will lose them. And that would be extremely bad and annoying and sad.**

**IGNORE MY THEORIES.**

**Please review and don't mention my theories!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well hello, oh wondrous people of fanfiction. Remember me? Remember this story?**

**I admit I was a while. A very long while, in fact, but I'll try my best to make it up to you and finish this story. I'm afraid I fell into the dark hole of Tumblr, Sherlock, and Lord of the Rings. And Doctor Who. Oops.**

**I still haven't quite emerged from it, but I'm doing my best. Enjoy the chapter, those who are still with me!**

* * *

Lily was woken by a snuffling sound coming from the corner of her room. In her sleepy state, she was less worried than she perhaps should have been – as it was, she simply wondered what it could be.

The first logical (well, as logical as she could be while still half asleep) conclusion she came to was that it was Remus. Sure, she had never known him to snuffle before, but it could be! And it was less worrying than any of the other options.

The rest of the conclusions that came flooding into her brain shortly afterwards were mostly about zombies or murderers, but they all shared the same concern – _how had they got in? _Was there a chink in their defences?

Still not being as careful as she would have been if fully alert, Lily made her way towards the corner the snuffling was coming from, still running all of her conclusions around in her head.

The butterflies that had unconsciously started fluttering around in her stomach decreased in energy once she had realised what it really was. In the corner there was (quite a large) black dog that was lying down, curled up, and probably asleep.

Lily approached him cautiously, trying hard not to wake him. After a minute of standing and staring at him in consideration, she knelt and placed her hand on his neck. Either fortunately or unfortunately (she wasn't quite sure which), this was not enough to wake him, so she continued to stroke his soft fur.

Once certain that nothing small was going to wake him, she stood once again and tip-toed over to where Remus was sleeping, cursing his decision to sleep in the corner farthest away. While that corner was the darkest and so was probably the easiest to get to sleep in, it was a good thirty seconds away. Trying to step softly for that amount of time was harder than anticipated.

Her frustration about this spurred her not to wake him gently, and instead of softly shaking him she simply kicked his midsection, which caused him to sit up with a start.

"What – "

Lily quickly hushed him with a finger to her lips. "There's a dog in the corner," she whispered.

Remus suddenly seemed more alert. "What does it look like?" he breathed back.

"Well, it's black…"

"What breed?"

Lily glared at him. "I'm not an expert on dogs, Remus. How would I know?"

Sending Lily a 'you're not being helpful' look, Remus got to his feet and walked to where the dog was sleeping. It only served to aggravate Lily more that even though he did not tip-toe, he still managed to walk much quieter and with much more agility than she had.

Upon seeing the dog properly, Remus seemed to wilt slightly, although Lily was not quite sure why. He seemed to mutter something, almost as if he was reprimanding himself, then took the place that Lily had occupied a few minutes before, kneeling beside the dog.

"By the way, it's brown, not black," Remus informed her in a low voice.

"It's dark, how was I supposed to know that?" Lily replied, her voice getting steadily louder. "The question is, how the hell did it get in? Are we safe here anymore? Can you talk to it?"

"Why would I be able to talk to it?" Remus asked her, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"I don't know, you might be able to do something… werewolfy."

"Lily, apart from turning into a werewolf in the full moon, I've only got normal-person abilities, and I'm pretty sure normal people can't talk to animals. And we're not even sure if I'll turn into a werewolf anymore. In fact, all we can achieve is waking him up, and you seem to have done that without need any help from the resident werewolf."

Lily's gaze returned to the dog, and with a jolt realised Remus was right. His eyes were definitely open, and they were definitely staring at both of them. And if not for Remus's comforting hand on his leg, he probably would have bolted by then.

"Should we let him go?" Remus asked her. "He could probably show us how he got in, because he'd get out that same way."

"But he could be attacked by the Infected!" Lily protested, the idea of the dog being injured already pulling at her heartstrings.

"Lily, we can't look after him. Also, he's a dog. Dogs have strong survival instincts," Remus gave a small smile. "Believe me, I know."

Lily sensed there was some ulterior motive Remus had, something he wasn't telling her. This easily prompted her in her decision. "Fine, we'll let him go. Maybe he's just our good omen."

Remus nodded, his eyes fixed on the dog that still lay before them, but was decidedly more alert than before. "Perhaps."

He released his grip, and it fled.

* * *

Sirius and James stared at the portrait blankly; unfortunately, the picture was a blank as their expressions.

Despite both of them being well aware that their magic of gone, they both seemed to have forgotten the obstacle that was now so prominent.

The common room was sealed shut, and the Fat Lady was gone. They had no means of getting in.

James struggled to remember back to when they had the map. "Are there any secret passageways in?"

Sirius shot him an incredulous look. "Unless you know something I don't, no. We searched for one for ages, don't you remember? There was nothing. Don't tell me you're losing your memories."

"No – just the stress, I guess. Makes you question yourself," James rubbed his forehead. "Well – what do we do now?"

"Right now?" Sirius asked grimly. "Right now, I think we may be facing a fight with some zombies."

James's eyes followed to where Sirius was pointing, sighing when he realised his friend was right. Around ten Infected were approaching them – the head of which was Peter Pettigrew.

"I thought he wasn't in school," James hissed, steeling himself.

"Apparently we were wrong," Sirius retorted, trying hard to refrain from backing up against the wall. That wouldn't have many advantages.

Strangely, neither of them found they were as disturbed or sad as they probably should have been.

* * *

**The next chapter will be up soon. I promise!**

**Please review, if only to tell me you are still with this story!**

**bee xx**


	9. Chapter 9

**I told you the next chapter would come out quickly. Here it is.**

* * *

Lily blinked, staring at the wall, through which the dog had seemed to have run quite easily. "How – "

Remus was on his feet already, feeling along the wall. "It seems solid. What did we require, again?"

Lily shrugged. "Can't remember. That no Infected could come in?"

"That's probably it!" Remus nodded, frowning. "We didn't say anything about normal people – or animals. That must be how he got in."

"Should we change that, then?" Lily asked.

"Probably should. Don't want anyone else coming in, really. We'd have to politely force them to get out."

The both of them simultaneously closed their eyes and mentally made adjustments to their requirements, making sure no-one other than them could get in or out. But, unknowingly, they both made the same exceptions.

* * *

Sirius attacked first, throwing himself forward into the crowd of Infected, kneeing Peter in the stomach and pulling back Lucius Malfoy's arm as hard as he could until he heard it snap. He doubled back, looking into his face in confusion – what was _Malfoy _doing in the school?

He had no time to consider this, already back into the fray, dimly registering that James had leapt in to help him. He grabbed one of the lit torches out of its holder, using it to singe any Infected that came his way. Malfoy fell this way, and so did Rodolphus Lestrange – what was _he _doing here?

In fact, looking around, he was pretty sure that everyone there was not meant to be at school, and all of them were people who he pretty much despised – barring Peter, of course. On his second glance, he realised that they were all also people who he suspected were Death Eaters. Had there been some dark plot to get into the school, and had the Infected thwarted them?

Or had they got something to do with the Infected?

And why was Peter among them?

While these questions were circling around his mind, he vaguely realised that his burning torch had killed all that had faced him, with only two left – one was pinned up against the wall by James, who had his hand firmly around its neck and the other was the former Peter Pettigrew, who was standing before him, a scared look in its eyes. He hadn't known Infected could be scared.

"Please, Padfoot, I'm not Infected," he whimpered, stepping back from the flaming torch clasped tightly in Sirius's hand.

Sirius jumped in shock, lowering his torch almost immediately. "How did you keep from being bitten?"

"I pretended to be Infected – they're not that clever, they bought it. I hoped somehow I'd bump into you. I couldn't get rid of them all on my own."

Sirius looked at him curiously. "Hey, Wormtail, what are you doing in school? I thought you were away doing… something."

Peter only smiled mysteriously, causing Sirius to narrow his eyes. "Well, Sirius, I'm afraid I lied."

Sirius almost took a step backwards. "About what?"

With a bare of his teeth, Peter answered. "Everything."

He lunged forward, his mouth wide open, his teeth aimed straight for Sirius's shoulder. Reacting almost immediately, Sirius lifted the torch and Peter let out a howl of pain, his chin having been burnt by the blaze. He drew back, but Sirius stepped forward and thrust the torch right into his face, which blistered. Peter screamed, then was no more.

"Apparently Infected are more clever than we thought," Sirius muttered to himself. "But that still leaves questions to be answered."

"Hey, Sirius?"

The wizard in question jumped slightly, having almost forgotten that James was there.

"Do you want to kill him?"

"What – " Sirius turned in confusion, then his eyes settled on the Infected still in James's grasp. He now realised why his friend had seemed hesitant to get rid of him himself.

His lip curled, but he couldn't help the traitorous pang of guilt that rose up inside him, if only for a moment.

"Regulus."

The Infected turned its baleful eyes towards him. Sirius had to avert his eyes, instead looking at James.

"You do it."

Then he turned away, closing his eyes.

But that couldn't block out the scream.

He was not going to show emotion.

* * *

"So, what now?" James asked as they both hurried down the corridor, eager to get away from the prone Infected bodies that had already started to rot.

Sirius shrugged, but did not deign to reply.

"The map – we can't get to. The others – we have no clue where they are. Bobsleigh – good as dead. Nothing seems to be going our way," James listed, if only to keep the awkward silence from descending on them.

Still, Sirius did not talk.

"Sirius, mate, talk to me or I'm going to go insane."

"You already are," was the only response, said in a quiet and tired voice.

James latched onto it. "No, Pads, that's you, remember? You used to go and put fireworks in the professors' glasses, and try not to laugh when their eyebrows got singed off. That's insane."

"You told me to do it."

"The first time, maybe, as a dare. _You _were the one who kept on doing it."

Sirius turned to him and grinned, _properly _grinned. "I was also the one who put dungbombs in Minnie's drink, wasn't I?"

James nodded eagerly. "Yes, that was you."

"And I was the one who decided that purple was a good colour for the Great Hall?"

"Uh-huh, that was you too."

"And I was the one who was the most amazing and the awesomest."

"Yes, that was you," James nodded. Then a confused expression clouded over his face. "Wait…"

Sirius let out a barking laugh. "And I a, also going to tick off that nice cynical list you made. Starting with Bobsleigh. He's running straight towards us."

James looked in front of him. "So he is." Then he broke into a smile. "So he is."

Towards them ran the chocolate-coloured dog, an inexplicably happy expression on his face.

Both of them moved to their knees to greet him, despite the obvious danger of Infected coming to eat their brains. Or something.

* * *

**I'm pretty sure you have a good ideas in your heads of what's coming next. If you haven't, good for you.**

**Please review!**

**bee xx**


	10. Chapter 10

**The shortest chapter in the history of ever, and for that I am sorry. I tried to pad the chapter out more, but it had to end in a specific place and there was only so much stuff I could put in-between the two events.**

**Edit: Forgot to format before. Very sorry.**

* * *

Although both James and Sirius had dropped to their knees to greet Bobsleigh, the dog seemed to have different plans. Once he had got to around a foot before them he turned and ran back in the opposite direction., down to the end of the corridor and around the corner.

James and Sirius were not having this; they had spent the last goodness-knows-how-long trying to find this dog, it was _not _going to get around now! After a brief glance at each other, the two took off and ran after Bobsleigh as fast as their legs could carry them (which, to tell the truth, was actually pretty fast).

* * *

"So – " Lily lay back. "What to do, what to do…"

Remus laughed. "In a room where we can get anything we require, we can't think of anything to do. We can get books, or Monopoly…"

Lily shook her head. "The last time I played Monopoly it was with Tuney. She decided to add in some new rules and you should have seen what happened. It was – "

Remus furrowed his eyebrows. "What was it?"

Lily shook her head distractedly. "Oh God…"

Remus sighed. "Sudden realisation?"

Lily nodded absently. "Am I going to see them again?"

"I dunno…" Remus shrugged. He had come to the realisation of the reality of the situation in the night, and had had a mini panic attack, before deciding that it would do him no good.

Coming to terms with the situation was always the hardest. Remus knew that.

Knowing they were going to have to deal with it was only slightly better.

"Oh…" Lily put her head in her hands. "You know, right now, I could really do with a cup of tea."

"Unfortunately we can't get one of those," Remus shrugged. "Believe me, I've been craving one since this whole thing started."

Lily gave a shaky laugh. "Anyway."

Remus nodded. "Anyway."

* * *

After around ten minutes of running at full pelt, Sirius and James found themselves _needing_ to slow down or they were going to burst a lung (or at least that was how it felt).

Bobsleigh, seeming to understand that, slowed down as well, until all three of them were just walking briskly, breathing heavily. After two minutes of solid panting, they had finally regained enough breath to talk.

"So… At what point did we appoint Bobsleigh as our guide?" James asked, watching the dog running a little way ahead of them, but keeping within their sights.

"At the point where we didn't want to lose him again," Sirius replied, rolling his eyes slightly. "We looked too hard for that dog to lose him now, when he's running only slightly ahead of us."

"Actually, he's a bit further way now," James noted, causing Sirius to sigh and them both to start running again.

* * *

Lily did a sort-of strange happy dance. "Why did we never open this door before?"

"Because it wasn't there before. It appeared because you wanted something to do."

"There's a whole library through here! Every book I've ever wanted to read! God, I love this room…"

Remus watched as Lily opened the door and went inside, closing the door behind her. He doubted she was going to be out soon, and the closed door probably meant that she didn't want to be disturbed.

He sighed and lay back. Perhaps he should get something to do too.

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind, in skipped (yes, skipped) two certain somebodies, throwing rose petals (yes, rose petals).

"Honey, I'm home!" crowed Sirius Black.

* * *

**Please review!**

**A full explanation will occur in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**You have no idea how much I enjoyed writing this chapter. The chapters had been getting harder to write, but I just churned this out really easily. Apparently I just like writing the Marauders all together.**

…**I should just go and write a fluffy Sirius and Remus thing so this story doesn't just turn into a whole ball of fluff.**

**This chapter is fairly humorous and pretty fluffy, though, but I just needed some reunions. So there. Hope that's okay.**

* * *

Remus blinked once. Twice. Three times.

"What – "

He didn't have time to say more before he was enveloped in quite a large hug.

Remus had to laugh. Slightly hysterically, but he was laughing, and he had his two best friends back, both of them clinging onto him as if for dear life.

James was the first to pull away. "Is Lily with you?"

"Through that door. There's a library."

"Nerds," Sirius mumbled into Remus's shoulder, as James stood and strode towards the door. Remus gave a short laugh and awkwardly patted him on the back.

"Hey."

Sirius refused to let go. "Missed you."

"Missed you too." Silence. "…Rose petals?"

"Not quite sure where they came from. They just magically appeared… But our magic's gone. How does that work?"

"This room still seems to work. It's the Room of Requirement, gives you almost whatever you want. For some reason you both wanted rose petals."

"Wanted to make an entrance," Sirius said, his voice becoming more tired. "Also, there's a dog outside, can you open your shields to him? He led us here."

"Sure."

As soon as Remus had done so, a large dog bounded in and sat obediently in the corner. Remus realised with a jolt that he recognised him. It was the dog that had visited the night before.

It was around this time that he realised that Sirius hadn't relinquished his hold on him yet. Giving a light chuckle that was only slightly awkward, he gently pushed at Sirius's shoulders.

"Get off me you imbecile, you stink."

Sirius pouted but did as he was told. "You would stink too if you were fighting the Infected all day, but you've been safely holed up here with _entertainment _and _showers _and – "

Remus cut him off. "You've been fighting the _Infected_?" He had gone a deathly pale.

Sirius hit his arm playfully. "Don't worry, we didn't do it by choice, only when we needed to. And neither of us has been harmed." He didn't mention any of the times they almost had. What Moony didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

He slumped suddenly. "God, I'm tired."

Remus fixed him with his 'mother hen' look. "When was the last time you slept?"

"At least twenty-four hours ago. We haven't had much time for resting, and we've had a pretty active day."

Remus sighed. "Go and require a bed and go to sleep, for God's sake. When James comes back from talking to Lily he can sleep too. We'll exchange stories when you're awake." He wrinkled his nose. "And had a shower."

Sirius laughed, gave Remus one more fleeting hug, then disappeared through a door that had only appeared seconds earlier.

Moony gave a small chuckle, rolling his eyes to the ceiling, but ultimately glad to have a Padfoot and a Prongs back. Perhaps this apocalypse would be more bearable now.

Perhaps Lily would think differently, though.

At least she would have something to vent her anger on.

* * *

James squared his shoulders. Right. Lily was behind this door. He was going to go through it and be awesome.

Should he knock? Should he just go straight in? Should he try to avoid Remus and Sirius's hug behind him?

Yes, he probably should. And the only way to do that would be to go through this door. To Lily.

Right.

He took a deep breath.

Deciding that the air inhaled in the first one wasn't enough, he took an even deeper breath.

…Which caused him to start coughing.

James sighed and opened the door.

"What do you want, Remus?"

Deciding that taking another deep breath probably wasn't the best idea (starting to cough was not the most _impressive _way to start a reunion), James just went straight for it.

"…I'm not Remus," he said in a pretty small voice – probably the smallest voice he owned. In fact, he wasn't even sure that he previously knew that he had a voice that small. He wondered if it was one of those things that you shove at the bottom of a drawer and then rediscover ages later. Okay, now his thoughts were rambling. Could thoughts ramble? Yes they could, he decided.

He dimly registered the sound of a book dropping to the floor and a redhead standing immediately in front of him.

Right. Lily.

James smiled. "Surprise?" he offered.

Lily just kept on staring.

"It was better than Sirius's 'Honey, I'm home'," James told her.

"…And was the 'Honey' Remus?" asked Lily, also in a pretty small voice. She must have found it in the bottom of a drawer, like James did. Wait, voices weren't stored in drawers…

Right. Conversation.

James nodded blankly. "I left them hugging on the carpet."

"And I suppose you want a hug from _me _then, do you?"

James grinned. "Would be nice."

"I would, but frankly Potter, you stink."

James's face fell. Lily patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm glad you're safe, James."

James beamed.

Lily followed James out into the main room, where Remus was sitting on a convenient chair.

"Where's Sirius?" James asked.

"In bed. That's where you should be too. You can explain how you got here later."

"You'd think he was my mother," James grumbled. "Wait… How do I get a room?"

"Require it, and it's there."

James followed instructions and entered a room opposite to Sirius's.

Lily's gaze fell to a chocolate-coloured Labrador slumbering in the corner of the room.

"Is it just me, or have I seen him before?"

"I'm pretty sure he's the reason these two are here," Remus told her, before disappearing into a room of his own.

* * *

**That felt good.**

**Please review!**

**And although the full explanation wasn't in this chapter, it's not rocket science to work out what happened. (Or if you can't work it out, I'm just better at mysteries than I thought, you're not stupid)  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello guys, long time no see. I may take a while to update at times, but I definitely **_**will **_**finish this story because a few of my friends in real-life are reading this and if I don't they will kill me.**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter, things are starting up again!**

* * *

Sirius groaned, rubbing his eyes and then slowly opening them. He felt well-rested for the first time in what seemed like years. However, he had not deigned to change his clothes after his shower, which he could see now was a bad decision; they now clung to him uncomfortably.

Slowly he sat up, wishing as he did so for a new set of clothes. They appeared on the floor around a foot from his bed, causing Sirius to groan again at the unnecessary effort of getting out of the bed. It was _extremely _comfortable.

After a while of deliberating whether getting out of bed _was_ worth the effort, the clinging shirt eventually made his mind up for him. He swivelled his legs over the side of the bed and stood, pulling off his shirt and discarding it in a messy heap.

Something caused him to still, however. As his hand had brushed over his neck, Sirius could have sworn he had felt something there. He lowered his hand and touched his neck inquisitively, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion when he felt a small line of raised skin where his neck met his shoulders.

Now completely awake, Sirius pulled his hair completely over the other shoulder, wishing for a mirror and standing in front of it when it appeared. He rotated slightly on the heels of his feet, sucking his breath in sharply when his gaze hit the mirror.

A deep red scratch – a short scratch, mind you, but still a scratch – was extremely noticeable against his oddly pale skin. Touching it once again, Sirius noticed that he felt no pain from it, and only got an odd tingling sensation.

He pushed his hair back to conceal it from sight, a slow panic rising in his chest. He fought to swallow it; nothing had happened to him until now, so surely it was just a normal scratch? He must have caught his neck on something. Did they even have evidence that a scratch could spread the disease? In fact, the more he thought about it, the reasons to be worrying slowly dropped.

Eventually his breath returned to an even pace, and Sirius decided (with difficulty) not to panic. Slowly, he pushed open the wooden door that led back into the main area.

…And nearly walked into the path of an extremely violent sneeze.

Sirius stepped back at lightning pace. "Keep your germs to yourself, Evans!"

Lily, strangely, looked quite sheepish. "Sorry. I've been sneezing all morning, I must have a cold. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how I did, and for some reason the room won't let me require to not have a cold." She frowned. "Just letting you know, Black, since we seem to be in the same living quarters. Not that it's any of your business." Her small speech was ended by an equally violent sneeze as the one before, causing Sirius to retreat hurriedly.

"Should I start wearing a surgeon's mask?" he asked Remus in an undertone, who just so happened to be walking along with a cup of tea in his hand.

Remus shrugged.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "How come you always have cups of tea? How did you even _manage _to get tea? Do you, like, piss tea or something?"

Remus gave him an odd look. "That would be painful if it was scalding hot. A lovely mental image."

About to reply, Sirius was abruptly distracted by a sudden pain where the scratch was. Hissing, he slapped his hand there and held it tightly for a moment, releasing it when the pain receded almost as quickly as it had come.

Remus was regarding him with concern. "Are you all right?"

Sirius shook himself. "Yeah – I'm fine."

"Do you want me to have a look – " Raising an arm, Remus stepped forwards worriedly.

Sirius batted his hand away swiftly, trying to ignore the slightly hurt look in his friend's eyes. "I'm _fine_." He turned to talk to James, who had conveniently just walked out his own bedroom. Unfortunately he seemed to be going to talk to Lily, and Sirius was _not _talking to her; it was a well-known fact that Sirius Black did not like colds. Instead he simply just ambled over to the sofa and sat there awkwardly.

Remus watched him amusedly.

Sirius coughed and scratched his ear, trying not to notice Remus's slowly growing grin.

* * *

"Cold getting better?" James asked Lily concernedly, placing himself a safe distance away.

Lily sneezed, then gave a dry smile. "I wouldn't say so. I would stand a bit further away, Potter, I don't think it would do us much good if _you _got a cold too."

James shrugged. "Thought you might want a bit of company. I think the other two are terrified of colds, they'll never go near someone who has one. It's a bit weird."

"Black is a bit weird, Remus just has common sense," Lily reminded him. "And since you don't seem to have any, I'm just going to ask how you got here, and why when I woke up there was a large Labrador on top of me."

"I'd say he likes you. Me and Pads – "

"Pads and I," Lily corrected him absentmindedly.

"Yes, that. We found Bobsleigh – that's what he's called – while we were wandering around the halls. We lost him for a bit."

Lily nodded. "He came here, but then he left and we sealed off the room so nothing else could come in, except for you two."

"That must be how he knew you were here!" James told her. "He led us here. He deserves a treat, he's been groovy."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "_Groovy_?"

James held his hands out defensively. "Hey, I'm trying to expand my vocabulary!"

Lily gave a sceptical sneeze. James didn't even know how that was possible, but it was Lily and she could do everything. Even put emotion into her sneezes.

"That was impressive," he told her at last.

She smiled. "Thanks."

* * *

**I like everyone being together. I don't have to write two stories at once.**

**Sneak Peek: I'm going to have to do that again soon, sort of. But I don't think I'll make these guys be separated again. Or maybe I will. Never tell!**

**Sneak Peek 2: You wonder how this apocalypse started? You may find out sooner. Or maybe later. Depending on how well I can integrate it into the story.**

**Please review! The more the reviews, the faster the update!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A long wait and a short chapter I'M SORRY GUYS. If it makes you feel any better, I'm in my summer holidays (more writing time!), know exactly where I'm going (or at least vaguely) and going to Iceland (doesn't really affect anything but ICELAND guys).**

* * *

Already the heat of the shower was proving too much for Sirius's tender scar. He sighed, reached behind him turned it off, annoyed that he hadn't had the opportunity to simply stand under the cascade of water and just relax.

This was around the sixth shower he'd had in the past two days; before the apocalypse he'd never really appreciated his showers for all they were worth, but then he'd never known what it felt to be _really _dirty and in need of a stress-reliever. Sirius was determined to catch up on any showers he'd missed over the years, and it was a much better thing to do than to be faced with the other three.

It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to them (aside from Lily, whose cold was not getting better), they just knew him extremely well and would immediately detect that he was worried about something. Remus already suspected that something was wrong.

Quickly towelling himself dry, Sirius dressed and entered the main room. Remus and Lily were spread over the floor, engrossed in their separate books and surrounded by a mini mountain range of ones already read. James, whom Sirius suspected was trying to get into Lily's good books, was on book-clearing duty, picking them up in stacks and returning them to the library.

Every so often either Lily or Remus would make a small noise of celebration, conjure a quill and make a note on the piece of parchment spread out before them. Their mission: To try to find out how this whole thing had started and how to stop it.

Sirius considered going over and joining them, but with a sinking heart realised there was nothing he could do to help. His stinging scar reminded him that retreating to the shower for another thorough wash was not an option so, sighing, he went to sit on the sofa.

A cough from behind him drew him to a halt.

"Hey, Padfoot, could you try to find us some more books that might help us?" Remus smiled at him sheepishly. "We seem to have read all the ones we picked out to begin with."

Sirius nodded gratefully and headed towards the library.

Lily waited until he had left the room then turned to Remus with narrowed eyes. "We've got plenty of books left to read. You just wanted to include him, didn't you?"

Remus shrugged helplessly. "He was just standing there like a lost puppy, there was else nothing I could do."

Lily laughed. "I'm not condemning you! It's just interesting." At Remus's slight glare, she quickly redeemed herself. "…To study the behaviour of human beings."

"And what are you, an alien?" Remus snorted, but let her off the hook.

* * *

"Looks like we're servants to the bookworms, doesn't it?" James commented as soon as Sirius entered the library.

"I knew there was going to be a day they took over," Sirius grumbled, but really only for the sake of it.

"Not to sound girly, but I'd much rather be doing this and knowing they're safe – " James jerked his head towards the main room " – than being out there like we were before."

Nodding, Sirius turned to contemplate the bookshelf.

* * *

"Did you know that most streets in Japan don't have names?" Remus looked up from his book. "How is that even relevant? Why don't we just require a book that can help us?"

"We did, and we just got an extra million books in the library," Lily groaned. "I guess it was just a combination of different spells, potions and enchantments. Maybe part of it was found on a street in Japan that doesn't have a name."

Remus sighed. "That doesn't help us in the slightest." He put the book on the ground with a thud and stood up. "I'm taking a shower."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't drown yourself. I swear that's what Sirius is trying to do, the number of times he's been in there."

* * *

"_Pettigrew!"_

_Peter jerked upright, his eyes snapping to the head of the table. The chair was still empty._

"_The Dark Lord will be here soon," Lucius Malfoy glared at him from his seat at the far right of the table, curling his lip. "I doubt sleeping will be tolerated."_

_Peter ducked his head, a slightly blush spreading across his face. Aware of the door opening and slow footfalls towards the table he did not dare look up, extremely conscious of his red forehead. He hoped it was not too conspicuous._

"_It is almost ready."_

_Peter tried his best not to cringe at the soft voice that escaped like a hiss._

"_It will happen in two nights time. Three nights after that, you will be seen as Infected and will, probably, be killed. No-one will suspect you still being alive, and no-one will fear us. Then, a week later, when most are dead…"_

_Peter silently apologised to his best friends – if he could still call them that without feeling a deep pang of shame._

"…_We strike."_

_Peter did his best not to cry._

* * *

**OOH LOOK PLOT. I'M AS SHOCKED AS YOU ARE.**

**I'll try to get something up within the next week, then I'll have two weeks without wi-fi because ICELAND but I'll still write chapters that I'll then upload when I get back.**

**Please review! xx**


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